Weekly Wrap Up (July 10)

There was no weekly wrap up last week as I was celebrating my birthday in St Malo with friends, this beautiful French walled port city is just an hour away from Jersey by ferry and we managed to eat, drink, laugh and shop to our heart’s content.

Due to lots of socialising and an insanely busy time at work, I haven’t really done an awful lot of reading in the last couple of weeks and looking ahead over the next couple of months, time is at a premium! Hey Ho! fortunately I still have some of my holiday reading reviews to post.

Last Week on the Blog

On Tuesday my post included an excerpt from The Couple Next Door by Shari Lapena, a story that seems to have echoes of real crime which will be published on 14 July 2016. This date seems to be incredibly popular, I have lots of books to review for that date (sadly it is unlikely impossible that I’m going to achieve this)

My review of Lie With Me by Sabine Durrant was posted on Wednesday, an author who has wowed me three times out of three with her unique psychological thrillers. This one was set in Greece and unusually narrated by a man.

Thursday saw me posting my review for the fifth of my 20 Books of Summer 2016 Challenge. It was the stunning non-fiction book The Curious Habits of Doctor Adams by Jane Robins which follows the investigation and trial into said doctor who was accused of murdering his patients for legacies in their wills back in 1950 Eastbourne. Fascinating stuff!

On Friday I joined The Book Jotter in her Six in Six meme to showcase a selection of the books I’ve read over the first half of 2016. There were lots of categories to choose from and I managed to complete it without repeating any choices!

Yesterday’s review was from a book published a decade ago – easily as enjoyable as many of my highly starred newer reviews and so it seems a shame not to shout as loudly about these old treasures as the newer shinier ones! Click here to read my review of The Dead Hour by Denise Mina

Stacking the Shelves

Of course not reading very much and having no time doesn’t mean that I haven’t been acquiring new books.

From NetGalley I have one from one of my favourite authors Lisa Jewell, I Found You which I’m so delighted with I will be opening it very soon. I Found You will be published on 14 July 2016

Blurb

‘How long have you been sitting out here?’
‘I got here yesterday.’
‘Where did you come from?’
‘I have no idea.’East Yorkshire: Single mum Alice Lake finds a man on the beach outside her house. He has no name, no jacket, no idea what he is doing there. Against her better judgement she invites him in to her home.
Surrey: Twenty-one-year-old Lily Drew has only been married for three weeks. When her new husband fails to come home from work one night she is left stranded in a new country where she knows no one. Then the police tell her that her husband never existed.
Two women, twenty years of secrets and a man who can’t remember lie at the heart of Lisa Jewell’s brilliant new novel. NetGalley

I also have a copy of Pretty Jane and the Viper of Kidbrooke Lane by Paul Thomas Murphy, which will be published on 14 July 2016 by Head of Zeus.

Blurb

In April 1871, a constable walking a beat near Greenwich found a girl dying in the mud – her face cruelly slashed and her brains protruding from her skull.
The girl was Maria Jane Clouson, a maid for the respectable Pook family, and who was pregnant at the time of her death. When the blood-spattered clothes of the 20-year-old Edmund Pook, alleged father of the dead girl’s unborn child, were discovered, the matter seemed open and shut. Yet there followed a remarkable legal odyssey full of unexpected twists as the police struggled to build a case.
Paul Thomas Murphy recreated the drama of an extraordinary murder case and conclusively identifies the killer’s true identity. NetGalley

I received two books for my birthday from my brother; Little Black Lies by Sandra Block

Blurb

She helps people conquer their demons. But she has a few of her own…In the halls of the psychiatric ward, Dr. Zoe Goldman is a resident in training, dedicated to helping troubled patients. However, she has plenty of baggage of her own. When her newest patient arrives – a beautiful sociopath who murdered her mother – Zoe becomes obsessed with questions about her own mother’s death. But the truth remains tauntingly out of reach, locked away within her nightmares of an uncontrollable fire. And as her adoptive mother loses her memory to dementia, the time to find the answers is running out.
As Zoe digs deeper, she realizes that the danger is not just in her dreams but is now close at hand. And she has no choice but to face what terrifies her the most. Because what she can’t remember just might kill her.
Little Black Lies is about madness and memory – and the dangerous, little lies we tell ourselves just to survive. Goodreads

and a copy of Did She Kill Him? by Kate Colquhoun, another book about Florence Maybrick (and of course poison.) I sent him a text thanking him for the inspired book choice and stating that I was into poisoning at the moment to which I got a super fast response commenting on how lucky my OH is to have me. If I’m ever forced to go onto Mastermind I think dear Florence will be my specialist subject!

Blurb

In the summer of 1889, young Southern belle Florence Maybrick stood trial for the alleged arsenic poisoning of her much older husband, Liverpool cotton merchant James Maybrick.
‘The Maybrick Mystery’ had all the makings of a sensation: a pretty, flirtatious young girl; resentful, gossiping servants; rumours of gambling and debt; and torrid mutual infidelity. The case cracked the varnish of Victorian respectability, shocking and exciting the public in equal measure as they clambered to read the latest revelations of Florence’s past and glimpse her likeness in Madame Tussaud’s.
Florence’s fate was fiercely debated in the courtroom, on the front pages of the newspapers and in parlours and backyards across the country. Did she poison her husband? Was her previous infidelity proof of murderous intentions? Was James’ own habit of self-medicating to blame for his demise?
Historian Kate Colquhoun recounts an utterly absorbing tale of addiction, deception and adultery that keeps you asking to the very last page, did she kill him? Goodreads

And… there have been a lot of sale books on Kindle which I have gallantly resisted but The Skeleton Road by Val McDermid was a temptation too far.

Blurb

When a skeleton is discovered hidden at the top of a crumbling, gothic building in Edinburgh, Detective Chief Inspector Karen Pirie is faced with the unenviable task of identifying the bones. As Karen’s investigation gathers momentum, she is drawn deeper into a dark world of intrigue and betrayal.
Meanwhile, someone is taking the law into their own hands in the name of justice and revenge — but when present resentment collides with secrets of the past, the truth is more shocking than anyone could have imagined . . . Amazon

TBR WATCH
We have progress!! Since my last post I have read just 4 books, gained 6 (I have an arc without details about a stalker too) so the total this week is now standing at 175 books!
88 physical books
68 e-books
19 books on NetGalley

Belated Happy Birthday Cleo 💐🎂📚
I’m keen to know what you make of Did She Kill Him as I have that on my wishlist. On a visit to Liverpool last year I did a tour of St George’s Hall which used to house the courtroom, so I’ve stood in the cell that Florence would have been held in.

A belated Happy Birthday, Cleo! It sounds as though you had a lovely birthday, and that’s fantastic. You’ve got some great books there, too! I’m especially keen to find out what you think about the Colquhoun and the McDermid. Sometimes those true-crime stories are absolutely fascinating, and McDermid is such a talented writer. I hope you’ll enjoy them.

Thank you Margot – it was good to spend the weekend somewhere else with good friends. I’m keen to start the Colquhoun so I don’t think that review will be too far in the future, plus it came with a note from the giver saying they wanted to borrow it 😉

Happy birthday to you, Cleo! What a fun outing you had – beautiful picture. Hope you enjoy LITTLE BLACK LIES. I liked that one a lot and need to read the next book in the series soon. Always enjoy reading what you have to say about any subject – books or not. LOL

Kindle sales should really be banned! Let’s just say you were more restrained than me… 😉 I like the sound of your two real crime ones this week. The name Kate Colquhoun sounds familiar but I can’t think why… hmm. Ah, just checked on Amazon – Mr Brigg’s Hat! I’ve been meaning to read that for ages!